Wednesday, August 3, 2016

One of the best books about the minorities in northern Italy borders was written during World War First by professor Martinelli. It was published in 1919 by the "American Geographical Society of New York". Here it is the section related to northern Italy, with detailed maps, as in "THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW Vol. VII March, 1919 No. 3":
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THE REGIONS OF MIXED POPULATIONS IN NORTHERN ITALY (By OLINTO MARINELLI Professor of Geography, Royal Institute of Higher Studies, Florence): Medieval Colonization of the Alps and the Present Ethnography of Northern Italy

ETHNIC UNIFORMITY OF THE PO VALLEY
It is strange that the Po Valley should be linguistically so uniform, in view of the repeated barbarian invasions to which it has been subjected. From its western extremity at the base of the Alps in Piedmont to its easternmost limit, where it joins the slopes of the Carso near Monfalcone, it is inhabited by a population which, except for slight anthropological differences and dialectal variations, shows how the language and civili zation of Rome unified races of divers origins. After the Gallo-Italian dialects, such as those of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia, come those of Venetia and Friuli; yet they are all dialects of Italian and are dominated by Italian as a language of culture. The only traces remaining of medieval foreign occupation are to be found in the place names; and even these are scattered and insignificant, with the exception of a well-localized group of Slavic names in the plain of Friuli west of Udine. Except for this latter region, which furnished the highroad for the foreign invasions, the great Po Valley, even in the centuries of Italy's greatest depopulation, possessed enough civilized inhabitants to assimilate the people who came from outside, often in great masses but always without sufficient support from new arrivals. The valley might be held for centuries by foreign peoples, but they were always sure to be more or less rapidly fused with the native population.
THE ALPINE PEOPLES
Very different, however, were the vicissitudes of the Alpine district
which flanks the Po Valley. Here natural conditions prevent a dense popu-
lation and an uninterrupted settlement. The thickly populated districts
are confined to the valley bottoms and to the slopes with favorable exposure.
The Alpine peoples, of whatever origin, may have been able partly to
escape from Celtic influence but not from that of Rome. In antiquity they,
like the peoples of the plain, were almost completely Latinized. There is
evidence of this in the series of Alpine dialects which with slight inter-
ruption extends from the Grisons to Friuli — dialects differing among them-
selves but regarded by linguistic experts as constituting a single group
called ^^Ladin." Some of these peoples call themselves ^^Ladins," while
others call themselves ^^Romansh"; both terms are reminiscent of the
civilization of Rome and at the same time are living indications of its con-
fines. Today, however, these confines are no longer what they once were.
The place names show that the Ladin territory included a great part of
eastern Switzerland and of the Tyrol, Vorarlberg, a great part of Bavaria,
Salzburg, the Pustertal, and other territory which is now German. It used
to include also the Julian Alps, now in great part Slav.
It appears certain that the population of the Alps, already sparse in
ancient times, became still more sparse during the early Middle Ages,
whereas the Germanic and Slavic peoples experienced that great increase
which was the indirect cause of the violent migrations toward the Medi-
terranean countries and of those slower and more continuous movements
of expansion by which their present distribution in Europe is chiefly
explained.
MEDIEVAL COLONIZATION OF THE ALPS
Almost all the great barbarian invasions were directed at the regions of
Italy which were richest in treasures accumulated through the ages. The
Alps could only prove a temporary resting place for peoples who were
seeking passage by the easiest and most accessible routes. So these inva-
sions had no direct influence upon the ethnography of the Alpine territory
but only an indirect influence due to the havoc they wrought along their
path. Of far greater importance were the varied colonizing movements
which took place in the wake of the great barbarian invasions for centuries.
This colonization was accomplished by groups that were numerically small
but were often renewed during the long periods of time involved; they
found the conditions favorable for a secure settlement in the midst of the
sparse Alpine population. These movements lasted until the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and in some cases even longer. They were often
favored by feudal lords who desired to populate abandoned territories and
who were unscrupulous about the people among whom they recruited
colonists.
GERMAN COLONIZATION
It is well known that in the Middle Ages the Alps were less a country
of feudal castles than of hospices and convents. Even before any concep-
tion of nationality was developed, the abbots and bishops, were the natural
upholders of the Koman element, while the dukes, counts, and marquises —
almost all of German origin — were certain to favor the German element.
Nevertheless, in many of the ecclesiastical estates German colonization pro-
ceeded without hindrance and in some cases with encouragement. This is
explained in part by the fact that the Italian element had no settlers to
furnish, and in part by the fact that the Germans alone possessed the
knowledge of some special craft, such as that of mining. At the eastern end
of the Alps the Franks granted lands in the plain of the Tagliamento to
the Slavs, while later the Patriarchs of Aquileia admitted to their territory
groups of German settlers. All this shows that we are dealing here with
phenomena explained by geographic, economic, and social factors which
were more weighty than the desires of the governors.
In several particulars the German colonization of the Alps differed from
that of the Slavs, among others in the greater role played by agriculture
and various arts and trades as compared with stock-raising, and because in
general it was later and continued longer ; there were, too, some territories
in which the Germans came and settled in Slav colonies.
SLAV COLONIZATION
The movement of the Slavs toward the west began at the end of the
sixth century and was arrested by the Bavarians in the Pustertal and by
the Lombards in Friuli. But these combats were probably against the first
bands of robbers, behind which came the peaceful stream of colonists, not
numerous, but sufficient to populate completely Styria, Carinthia, Carniola,
and parts of Friuli and Istria. The Italian element with which they came
into contact in the latter regions showed a remarkable power to assimilate
the Slavs. But only in a few cases could it offer an effective resistance.
A considerable resistance was offered, however, by the German element,
especially in Carinthia. In the eighth century the German colonists had
begun to establish themselves in force among the Slavs, who were evidently
much scattered, so that Carinthia and northern Styria were already in the
twelfth century largely populated by Germans or Germanized Slavs, as
were also later central Styria and the greater part of the basin of Klagen-
furt. This diffusion of the Germans over territory once Romanized and
later become Slav took place on the southern side of the Alpine watershed
only in a few cases, as in the upper valley of the Fella (at the source of
this river and at Pontafel) and in the basin of the Isonzo, where, however,
the little colony of Deutschrut, imported by the Patriarchs of Aquileia in
the fourteenth century, has now become Slovene.
NON-COINCIDENCE OF ALPINE WATERSHED WITH ETHNIC BOUNDARY
There have been many cases on the other hand in which German coloni-
zation passed beyond the Alpine watershed, pouring directly into Italian
territory. The most notable is certainly that of the upper Adige region;
but from the Monte Rosa massif to the Carnic Alps there is a whole series
of German peninsulas and islands in Italian territory. On the other hand,
around the upper Rhine and the upper Inn (Engadine) the Ladin element
is still found on the northern slope of the Alps. Thus, when the line of
the Alpine watershed is considered in relation to the limit between the
German and Italian peoples, it is easy to see that a coincidence is quite
exceptional. It is evident also that the medieval colonization of the Ger-
mans followed sometimes the highroads from the trans-Alpine countries
into Italy and sometimes secondary paths and difficult passes; wherefore
it is not always easy to see a close relationship between the topography of
the Alps and its ethnographic conditions.
THE TERRITORIES OF MIXED POPULATION:
1)Location between Political Boundary of Italy and Alpine Watershed
We must now examine separately each of the territories with a mixed
population. They are almost all outside of the political state of Italy, the
greater part of them lying between the boundaries of the kingdom and the
Alpine watershed. Since this watershed is conventionally regarded as the
natural boundary of Italy, these territories are generally considered as
outskirts of Italy under foreign rule. To some of them Italian geographers
have given special names which differ from their official or political names
and sometimes even from their traditional names. **Venezia Giulia"
(Julian Venetia) , for example, has been used by Italians for some decades
to designate the region which the Austrian government calls the Klisten-
land, together with parts of Carinthia, Carniola, and Croatia. The
southern part of the Tyrol south of the watershed, on the other hand, is
called the ^^Trentino'' (i. e. the Trent district), a comparatively old name,
and the northern part ^'Alto Adige'' (i. e. the basin of the Adige above
Salorno), a name only recently used, at least in its present acceptation.
The terms *^ Italian Switzerland ' ' or ''Swiss Lombardy" and the name
''Nizzardo'' (i. e. the district about Nice) have no need of special explana-
tion. Almost none of the regions here mentioned has any geographic
unity, since their extent is dependent on the often irrational position of
the political boundary of Italy in relation to its so-called natural boundary.
Most of these districts result from an aggregate of diversified territories or
parts of territories which often have had no common history and have now
no administrative unity.
2)Extension of Trans-Alpine States to Italian Territory Facilitated
BY Ease of Crossing Alpine Watershed and Carso
Almost all are territories conquered at the expense of Italy, when for
centuries it was divided and weak. These conquests usually find their
geographical reason in the interest which the Alpine or partially Alpine
states had in securing for themselves the possession of the roads which
led down into the Po Valley by occupying the passes and southern Alpine
valleys. The states in the Po Valley — strong because they were rich in
population and civilization^ — were the states which, although usually at war
among themselves, saved Italy from total subjection to the foreigner and
later rendered possible its unity. The extension of the trans- Alpine states
to Italian territory was facilitated by the fact that the Alps are not every-
where a difficult obstacle and that their divide is not everywhere clearly
defined. The line is most undecided at the eastern extremity of the Alpine
chain, in the Carso, where most of the watercourses flow partly under-
ground and where none of the various relief features have a decided
character. The Carso, indeed, presented serious difficulties to railroad con-
struction, though not requiring long tunnels, but it always offered easy
access to the old forms of transportation and to great masses of migratory
peoples. The population which established itself in the Carso did not feel
that isolating influence exercised in the Alps by the high mountain barriers
separating one valley from another. Moreover, even in the more rugged
parts of the Carso the anthropogeographieal conditions in some respects
approach the conditions in the plains, while in other respects they are
distinctive.
It is precisely in the region of the Carso that the occupation of Italian
territory by foreign peoples has reached its widest extension. Here, in
Julian Venetia, we find the greatest aggregation of diversified territories
and the greatest ethnic complications.
ISTRIA

Julian Venetia in General
Julian Venetia includes, besides a part of Carniola and a smaller part
of Croatia, the upper Fella valley, the Gorizia district (i. e. the County of
Gorizia and Gradisca), Trieste, Istria, and Fiume. The upper Fella valley
was never under the rule of an Italian state ; the County of Gorizia, after
the extinction of its ruling house, which was feudally dependent first on
the Patriarchs of Aquileia and then on Venice, passed in 1500 by inherit-
ance to the House of Austria and has belonged to it ever since; inland
Istria, for similar reasons, had previously undergone the same fate, while
the seacoast belonged to the Republic of Venice until the Treaty of
Campoformio (1797) ; Trieste in 1382 placed itself beneath the protection
of the Dukes of Austria in order to have their support against Venice; Fiume in 1483 through inheritance came under the same dominion, but in 1778 was handed over to the Hungarian Crown. Julian Venetia includes
Alpine territory (the Julian Alps), foothills (Julian Pre- Alps), plateaus
(the high Carso) and high plains, and a piece also of real plain (eastern
Friuli). It cannot be considered in its entirety, but only in the separate
parts into which it is traditionally divided.
Italian Character of Istria
Istria is the most notable part of Julian Venetia. Administratively it
includes the islands of the Quarnero (Veglia, Cherso, and Lussin) and
excludes Trieste and Fiume. The islands of the Quarnero can be considered
as belonging physically to the archipelago of Dalmatia, while Istria finds
its physical unity mainly in its peninsular character. Istria resembles a
typically Italian region both in its physical features and in the human
occupation of its soil, especially its arboxiculture. An even stronger
impression of being in Italy is made upon the visitor by its cities, both by
their monuments and the general appearance of their buildings. Art and
culture are everywhere entirely Italian.
Ethnic History
However, the ethnographic conditions of Istria are complicated. In
few regions could there be found a more mixed population. The whole
peninsula was Eomanized in antiquity, with the result that there became
established, in the north, upon a Carnic foundation, a Ladin dialect, which
has only recently disappeared, and, in the south, upon an lUyrian founda-
tion, a Venetian dialect, the Istrian of today. In the seventh century there
arrived from the north the Slovenes and, a little later, from the east, the
Croats. They were chiefly shepherds and only later became tillers of the
soil. The Italian population of the cities, located mainly on the coast,
maintained itself almost everywhere and in a great part of the region
was strengthened by the rule and civilizing influence of Venice. But for
various economic and social reasons Istria, in the fourteenth and following
centuries, underwent a depopulation. To repair this the Eepublic of Venice
favored colonization by outside peoples, principally from Dalmatia and
Albania. The ethnography of Istria is, in large measure, the product of
this immigration, which took place in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven-
teenth centuries, and which was directed both toward the inland districts
and to those parts of the seacoast remaining unpopulated. The last of
these colonies (1657) is that of Peroi, near Pola, settled by people from
the Bocche di Cattaro region and by Montenegrins, who still preserve their
Greco-Oriental religion. This colonization, which continued more than
two centuries, strengthened the Slav element in the interior and introduced
it in the Italian cities of the west coast. It also brought Kumanians, the
greater part of whom, however, are now Slavicized, their original language
being preserved by only a few hundred people in two small districts in
Croatian territory. The Slavicized Kumanians are the so-called Cicci
(Chichis), who inhabit the most mountainous part of Istria, the Fucki,
and perhaps some other stray element, which, in the past, fused with the
Italian. It is worthy of remark, however, not only that many of the Slavs
of Istria use Italian as their language of culture and commerce, but also
that some hybrid dialects have been formed, as is the case with the so-called
Schiavetto.
Present Ethnic Conditions
The last century brought, on the one hand, the strengthening of the
Italian element in the coast cities, thanks to the assimilation of the unedu-
cated Slavs and to the immigration of laborers from Friuli, and, on the
other, the extension and consolidation of the Slavic element in the country
and in the interior. The latter phenomenon may be due to the greater
fecundity of the Slavs, their absorption of the Eumanian elements, or their
increased spirit of nationality, as a result of which some bilingual popu-
lations which in the past considered themselves as Italians today regard
themselves as Croats. Later, in the interior of the peninsula, which did
not belong to Venice, there was added the German element, which during
the feudal period had difficulty in securing a foothold. In very recent
times it has become somewhat numerous in a few seaside and winter resorts
such as Brioni and Abbazia and at Pola. From being a small town, which
a century ago numbered less than 1,000 inhabitants, Pola has become the
largest city of Istria, with 60,000 inhabitants, since its transformation into
the chief naval port of Austria-Hungary. The other coast cities of Istria
had little modern industrial and commercial development. This enabled
them to preserve their Italian character intact, in their architecture and
their language as well as in all the manifestations of family, civil, and
artistic life.
It is difficult to determine with certainty the distribution of the popu-
lation of Istria according to language, even within its administrative limits
(4,956 sq. km.). This is due to the difficulty of classifying ifiixed or
bilingual peoples and to the frequent unreliability of the statistics collected
in a region occupied by hostile nationalities. In the census of 1910 the
Italians numbered 147,388, the Serbo-Croats 167,966, the Slovenes 55,407,
the Germans 13,279, the Rumanians 883. But these figures include only
Austrian subjects; thus the 147,388 Italians rise to 153,415 if we add the
6,027 citizens of the kingdom of Italy who inhabit Istria. On the other
hand, the number of Germans would be reduced to less than a third if we
excluded the garrison of Pola. These figures show, in any case, that in
Istria no nationality predominates in a marked degree. It is, however,
to be noticed, that in agriculture and economic activity the Italians have
an importance out of all proportion to their numbers, so much so that a
great many of the Slavs speak Italian.
TRIESTE AND FIUME
As Economic Outlets of a Large Hinterland
Trieste and Fiume do not form a part of Istria either geographically or
politically. Trieste has administrative autonomy in Austria and Fiume in
Hungary. The small territory included in these divisions^ — 95 square kilo-
meters for Trieste and 21 square kilometers for Fiume — is in contrast with
the size of their present economic hinterland, but it finds an explanation
in the conditions of the past, which have their basis in the geographical
position of the two cities. Trieste is not at the mouth of a valley, while
Fiume is at the mouth of a valley of rather limited length and has behind
it the Carso, which is here more impassable than at Trieste. The two cities
were for centuries Adriatic ports, much like those of Istria in importance
and presenting similar conditions of development. These two cities, as
long as they mainly lived from the sea and in the days of small industries,
sailing ships, and the old methods of land transportation, developed their
economic activity within very narrow lines, which often did not pass
beyond the bounds of their own hydrographic basin. So they had a limited
importance. Nevertheless their Italianism, although scarcely felt in a
nationalistic sense, was in no danger of extinction, because life on the
shores of the Adriatic, which is so completely an Italian sea, could not but
be strengthened by it. But in modern times these two ports became the
outlets of large territories in the interior of Europe, extending far beyond
the Danube. The two cities grew rapidly through the influx of inhabitants
from near at hand, prevailingly Slavs, and from the more remote regions,
Germans in the case of Trieste, and Hungarians of Fiume. To the natural
development of this phenomenon we must add in the last decades the
policy of the governments of Austria and Hungary, which was directed not
only to developing these outlet ports but also to rendering less dangerous
the singular state of affairs involved in the fact that the chief port of a
state in which the German element dominates is in reality Italian and
accessible only across more than a hundred kilometers of Slovene terri-
tory and that the chief port of the other state, in which the Magyar element
is supreme, is also Italian and accessible only across two hundred kilo-
meters of exclusively Croatian territory. This policy has contributed to
diminishing, though in slight measure, the relative numerical importance
of the Italian element in the two cities ; but it greatly helped to give these
Italians a strong sense of their nationality and to make Trieste the chief
center of ''irredentism'' — ^that is, of the movement for the political reunion
of the "unredeemed'' districts with the Italian fatherland.
Size of the Population According to Nationalities
Only in the eighteenth century, and especially in the second half of it,
did Trieste surpass in population the other cities of Istria — Fiume only
in the nineteenth; but, except during the last twenty years, the growth of
the two cities, despite the great prevailing influx of Slavs, was always less
than the power of assimilation of the more intelligent native element. For
instance, the 120,000 Italians in Trieste according to the census of 1910
doubtless cannot be regarded as descendants of the few thousand who lived
there in the first half of the eighteenth century (3,865 in 1735). A large
percentage of the population of Trieste, as is shown by the family names,
is of Slav or German origin; another large number is due to the not
inconsiderable immigration from Friuli or Venice. This influx, like that
of the Slovenes, is explained by the modern industrial development of the
city. In 1910, besides the 120,000 subjects of Austria, there were in Trieste
almost 30,000 Italian citizens. Out of the 220,000 inhabitants of the city,
the Italians represented three-fourths of the population, so that the 60,000
Slovenes, who live chiefly in the suburbs, and to a still greater extent the
12,000 Germans, represented minorities only. At Fiume in 1910 the
Italians, including those born in Italy, represented little more than one-
half of the population, which numbered about 50,000 ; yet even numerically
they formed the dominant element, as compared with 15,000 Slavs and
6,500 Magyars. It is in the presence of these newcomers that the people
of Trieste and Fiume felt their allegiance to Italy all the more, though at
first but weakly ; but in Istria this allegiance has always been deeply felt,
if only in the form of devoted attachment to Venice.
THE GORIZIA DISTRICT
The County of Gorizia
The old County of Gorizia represents a fragment of Friuli which a
feudal family in the Middle Ages succeeded in detaching from it and
which, as we have seen, later passed to the House of Habsburg. Under the
name of County of Gorizia and Gradisca it forms a province by itself. It
includes, besides a piece of the Carso behind Trieste and the valley of the
Vippacco (German, Wippach), which separates the Carso proper from the
high Carso (the plateau of Ternova), two principal geographic regions: the
valley of the Isonzo and the eastern part of the plain of Friuli. The limits
of this province towards the kingdom of Italy are most unnatural; the
most unnatural section of the boundary is that which runs through the
plain and which is for the greater part defined by the little river Judrio.
This was the limit of Venetian Lombardy as long as this region belonged
to Austria, and it represented a rectification of a still more complicated
boundary which for centuries limited the Republic of Venice on the east.
On both sides of this frontier are to be found not only the same physical
and economic conditions, but also the same Italian population, which
extends compactly to the foot of the Carso. Here there is no question of
a mixed population as in Istria, because the separation between the Italian
plain and the Slovene mountain district is almost everywhere clean-cut.
As was shown above, the Slavs had also established themselves in some
parts of the plain of Friuli, but here the Italian population quickly re-
gained the lost territory, and for centuries the ethnographic has coincided
with the geographic boundary. Kather than a mixed zone, there could
be distinguished one in which the Slavs, who were in close relations with
the Italian centers at the foot of the mountains, were compelled to speak,
beside their own dialect, that of Friuli.
The City op Gorizia
Gorizia, which was always the political center of the entire territory,
has always formed an exception. But ever since the commercial activity
of the town in the plain began to prevail over the court life in its feudal
stronghold, the city has been almost exclusively Italian in population and
character. Recently, however, the development of the city, and especially
its suburbs, as a great industrial center has brought about a profound
change inasmuch as the workers have been recruited chiefly among the
Slovenes. Thus the census of 1910 showed that the population was only
half Italian: as against 14,838 Italians (to whom must be added 1,110 sub-
jects of Italy) there were 10,782 Slovenes and 3,236 Germans. These
last, when they do not belong to the garrison, are there because Gorizia
is a favorite resort of Austrian state pensioners and of persons desiring or
requiring a mild climate. (Though with evident exaggeration, Gorizia is
often called the Austrian Nice.)
Population op the County
Within the confines of the County of Gorizia and Gradisca (2,918
sq. km.) the census of 1910 showed 90,181 Italians (Friulians and, at
Monfalcone, Venetians), to which must be added 8,947 Italians born in
Italy, while there were 154,537 Slovenes and 4,481 Germans.
The Slovenes op the Province op Udine and the Resians
It must be noted here that the Slovene area of the County of Gorizia,
while it continues on one side into Carniola and into Carinthia, on the other
side includes, in the province of Udine, a territory consisting in large part
of valleys which send their waters into the Isonzo and which have easy
communication with this river. These Slovenes of the province of Udine,
according to the census of 1911, numbered 31,730, to which must be added
4,650 Eesians, who inhabit the valley of Resia in the basin of the Taglia-
mento and speak a dialect which seems to be related to Serbo-Croat. These
Slovenes of the province of Udine do not anywhere, as they certainly did
in the past, reach the plain and still less the Fella valley, along which run
the frequented highway and railroad via Pontebba, while in the mountain-
ous region where they have persisted, even if they are distinguished by
their origin and dialect from the people of Friuli, they nevertheless, like
them, regard Italy as their fatherland.
The Upper Fella Valley
The upper valley of the Fella, on the other hand, is still subject to Austria
as far as Pontafel, and throughout its small area of 220 square kilo-
meters presents a singular succession of German villages alternating with
Slovene villages. A little more than half of the entire population, which
does not amount to more than 4,000, is Slav; a little less than half is
German. It has been shown elsewhere how in this region German coloni-
zation has been superimposed upon that of the Slavs, as is the case through-
out Carinthia, of which the upper Fella valley forms a part.
THE ALTO ADIGE DISTRICT AND THE TRENTINO

The German-Italian Contact Zone
The valley of the Fella, belonging to the basin of the Tagliamento, is the
only valley south of the watershed where for centuries Italians, Germans,
and Slavs have lived side by side. The Slavs once extended west as far as
the sources of the Eienz (south of Toblach) but left their only trace there
in the place names; so that today to the west of the Fella we find only
superimpositions of the German element directly on the Italian. These
superimpositions took place during a long period of time, but the ethno-
graphic situation today is substantially the product of the eleventh to the
fourteenth centuries, during which German colonization, favored by the
foreign lords, became possible because extended tracts in the Venetian
mountains were sparsely populated, while they were rich in unexploited
minerals, forests, and pastures. Small German groups crossed the Carnic
Alps, entering the upper basins of the Tagliamento and of the Piave (the
villages of Timau and Sauris in the former and Sappada in the latter, with
a total population of less than 3,000, are still German), but the main
channels of German penetration south of the watershed led along the upper
forks of the Adige, which continue the lines of easiest communication
between Central Europe and Italy. These lie over the Brenner (1,362
meters) and the Toblacher Feld (1,208 meters). The German coloniza-
tion, though intense, was practically confined within the principal valleys,
so that in the higher and more remote valleys the original Ladin population
was able to persist for a long time, in some cases even to our own day.
Hence beside the Val Monastero (Miinstertal), which is connected with the
basin of the Adige but is politically a part of Switzerland, the Val Gardena
(Grodnertal), an eastern tributary of the Eisack, is also Ladin, as well as
the valleys of Marebbe (Bnneberg) and Badia (Abtei), both of which send
their waters to the Rienz. In the lower part of the valley of the Adige
the German infiltration was stopped by the presence of a more numerous
Italian population, and here, between Bozen and Salorno (Salurn) lay a
zone of contest between the two populations — a contest which still continues.
But this did not prevent German colonization from thrusting small units
much farther south, even to the Pre-Alps, in sight of the Venetian plain;
but here, contrary to what happened in the upper Adige region, the Ger-
mans did not maintain themselves in the main valleys, but settled in the
higher tributary valleys and on the table-lands. This is the case with the
isolated German colony of the Mocheni in the valley of the Fersina east of
Trent and with the Germans of Luserna, on the Austrian side of the plateau
of the Sette Comuni. The whole plateau was once populated by Germanic
peoples, but they are today in great part Italianized — the number of Ger-
mans in the Sette Comuni being only 2,800 in 1911 — as are also almost all
the inhabitants of the Tredici Comuni north of Verona, where in 1911
German was spoken by only 170 persons.
Germanization of the Ladins
While the ethnographic conditions of the Adige basin and the adja-
cent regions are largely due to the immigration of the period prior to the
fifteenth century, yet many changes have taken place since, even down to
our own time. On the one hand the Italianization of the more advanced
German centers has made progress; on the other the Ladin element has
become in most cases Germanized or is now becoming so. The latter
phenomenon is due not so much to inferior civilization as to other circum-
stances.
The region about the headwaters of the Adige, once Ladin, lost its
original character, not only through frequent contact with the German
element but also because in the seventeenth century the local dialect was
forbidden in order to prevent the spread of Calvinism in the Tyrol from
the Engadine. On the other hand, with the change in the suitableness of
a terrain to communication which modern progress in methods of transpor-
tation has brought about — a change which led to the abandonment of the
uplands and divides formerly favored for secondary routes and the selec-
tion of the valley trenches, even when narrow — the elevated tracts and high
tributary valleys populated by the Ladins partly lost contact with each
other and established closer relations with the inhabitants of the deep main
valleys. In general, they were no longer able to maintain the isolation
which for centuries had preserved their characteristics. Another contribu-
tory influence to this result was the passing of tourists, who were in great
part German. We are now referring to the Ladins in the Dolomites. By
means of the schools and an intense propaganda organized by Austrian and
German societies for the diffusion of the German language and influence,
these Ladin populations are drifting away from their natural cultural
affiliation, without making any appreciable resistance.
The Bozen Eegion
As has been pointed out, the zone for the possession of which the Italians
and Germans have most contended and still contend has Bozen for its
center and extends from Meran to Salorno. The valley of the Adige lies
at a rather low elevation at this point (Meran, 301 meters; Salorno, 224
meters) and especially in the section above Bozen is well protected from
north winds, has a limited rainfall, and enjoys a climate which permits the
culture of the vine and of the mulberry, thereby making this the region in
which Mediterranean vegetation and cultivation penetrate farthest into the
Alps. On the racial distribution this fact has had two opposite ejffects: it
has favored the inflow of Germans to certain centers as health and summer
resorts, on the one hand, and, on the other, the immigration of cultivators
from the Trentino into the rural districts. This last phenomenon arises
from two causes: the Tyrolese have less experience than the people of the
Trentino with intensive agriculture, and the latter, because of the economic
conditions in their own district, have been compelled in the last decades to
emdgrate in large numbers, some going to distant America and others to
the neighboring regions of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The 17,182 Italian
immigrants from Austria listed in the United States census of 1910 under
** foreign white stock'' were almost all from the Trentino.
Through Bozen and the valley south of it passes the Brenner highway.
Hence, the development of this center and of the region tributary to the
highway always reflected the fluctuations of commerce and industry, which,
in the past, have favored the influx now of Italians, now of Germans. Since
the construction of the railroad the latter have had a distinct advantage.
The conditions of the Italian element between Meran and Salorno have,
therefore, been quite varied ; of late, the Italians have tended to increase in
the country and to decrease in the cities and towns. However, when we
pass from this disputed territory and enter the high, tributary valleys, the
upper Adige district is almost entirely German, whereas the Trentino is
almost exclusively Italian.
Population of the Alto Adige and the Trentino According to Nationalities
The Alto Adige district, i. e. the basin of the Adige above Salorno
(7,178 sq. km.): this district includes the administrative divisions, called political districts, of Bozen, Brenner,
Brixen, Meran, and Schlanders.If we depend upon the Austrian census of 1910, which
certainly is inexact but for which it is difficult to find any substitute, was
inhabited by 215,345 Germans and 16,510 Italians. Even if this last figure
ought to be doubled or tripled in an impartial reckoning, and with the
addition of those born in Italy, the Italian element would still form a small
minority.
In the Trentino (6,356 sq. km.), still according to official figures, the
Italians, exclusive of those born in Italy, numbered 377,039, the Germans
13,477; but this last number would be reduced to less than half if the
members of the garrisons and the government employees were excluded.
The Trentino, besides the middle section of the Adige basin between Salorno
and the Italian frontier includes Giudicaria, i. e. the basin of the upper
Chiese and the Sarca, with a part of Lake Garda; the Valsugana, i. e.
the upper Brenta valley; and the regions around the sources of the Astico
(Lavarone), of the Cismone (Primiero), of the Cordevole (Livinallongo)
and of the Boite (Ampezzo). The two last regions, corresponding to the
political district of Ampezzo (390 sq. km., 6,674 population), because of
their history and their geographic conditions, are considered to be outside
of the Trentino proper. The population speaks a Ladin dialect strongly
affected by Venetian. In the Dolomites it is the district most frequented
by foreigners ; this explains why in the census of 1910 we find 443 persons
who speak German. Though the Trentino does not represent a complete geo-
graphic unit, it possesses an individuality of its own, if only by contrast
with the upper Adige district, in population and physical and economic
conditions. The tree culture of the Italian plain and hills is widespread
here, and around Lake Garda even the olive grows. Toward Italy are
directed the aspirations and interests of the Trentino.
Individuality and Separatist Tendency of the Trentino
In earlier centuries this difference between the upper Adige and the
Trentip^ was recognized politically in the independence of the episcopal
principality of Trent, which lasted until 1796 and, though with a few varia-
tions in the boundary, embraced almost all the racially Italian area. Yet no
account was taken of this difference by Austria in the present system of
administrative divisions. In this the Trentino forms, together with the
Tyrol, a single province (i. e. the County of Tyrol and Vorarlberg) whose
government is in the main entrusted to the German majority. For, accord-
ing to the census of 1910, in the total population of 1,049,169 the Germans
numbered 651,858, the Italians 391,557.
The struggle of the latter for their liberation from the Austrian yoke
assumed, then, not only the form of irredentism, or return to the Italian
fatherland, but also agitation for administrative autonomy, or separation
from the German Tyrol. Notwithstanding the legitimacy and legality of
this demand, it was never heeded by the Austrian government. The
Italianism of the Trentino, in culture, in tradition, and in sentiments, has
been splendidly demonstrated not only in the daily opposition to the
arrogance of the central and provincial governments and to the invasion
of the German element, abetted by the Pan-German societies, but also in
the support of schools and other cultural agencies through which even the
lowest classes of the people tried to strengthen their Italian allegiance, even
to the point of purging their dialect of the slight traces of German which
had crept into it during the centuries of commercial relations. Thus their
aspiration grew continuously to free themselves from the double yoke of
their forced membership in a foreign state and their administrative
association with real enemies.
It is not out of place to recall here how the struggles undertaken within
the sphere of Austrian law by Italian subjects of Austria, for the autonomy
of the Trentino, for an Italian university in Trieste, and for many other
ideal and material interests, had little effect, inasmuch as they were strenu-
ously opposed by an always hostile government. This is because, while in
the Adige region the Italians were in open opposition to the Germans, in
Julian Venetia they were confronted chiefly with the Slavs; so that they
did not have the support even of the latter, who ought to be, as they now
are, their natural friends.
ITALIAN SWITZERLAND
The Two Teutonic-Eomance Contact Zones
When we turn from the territories subject to the Austrian yoke to con-
sider Switzerland, the problems of the contact between the Eomance and
Teutonic peoples present themselves under quite different aspects. Two
contact zones should be distinguished, a longitudinal, running east and west,
along which Ehaeto-Eomans and Italians abut against Germans, and a
transverse, running north and south, along which French peoples face the
Germans. In the latter zone the German element comes into contact chiefly
with populations whose dialect belongs to the Franco-Provencal group and
whose written language and culture are almost completely French. The
ethnic boundary was more subject to successive thrusts toward the west,
the chief of which occurred before the year 1000. The French element
strongly resisted this movement at various times, but it has resisted it
especially in the last decades.
The German Wedge
The ethnic boundary between Germans and French lies not only in Swiss
territory, but continues into Italian territory. Here, south of the Monte
Eosa group the Germans in the valley of Gressoney (German, Lystal) are
on the west in contact with Franco-Provencals of the valley of Aosta,
among whom French holds first place in the church, schools, and in general
culture. We also find Germans southeast and east of Monte Eosa in the
upper Val Sesia and its tributaries (Alagna, Eima, and Eimella) and in
the valley of Anzasca (Macugnaga). Gondo (G., Euden) and Simplon
(Simpeln) are also German; although on the southern side of the Alpine
watershed, they belong politically to Switzerland. In Italian territory the
valley of Formazza (G., Pommat), i. e. the uppermost valley of the Toce,
and, in the Swiss canton of Ticino on the other side of the crest which
encloses the valley on the east, Agaro and Bosco (G., Gurin) are likewise
German. It is probable that these German centers, which today number,
all told, about 5,000 inhabitants, were in the past more numerous, but the
more advanced of them, like Ornavasso on the lower Toce near Lake Mag-
giore, have not been able to avoid the assimilating influence of the more
numerous and cultured Italian population, and this influence still continues
in force.
Taken together as a unit, the Germans of these wild Alpine valleys form
a wedge whose apex, at Issime,^ is thrust forward to within 20 kilometers
of the Po Valley. This wedge completely separates French Switzerland
from Khaeto-Romanic Switzerland, which includes almost all the valleys
of the uppermost Rhine and Inn basins and the Val Monastero, already
mentioned, all, except the last, lying north of the Alpine watershed. The
watershed separates this valley from the rest of Rhaeto-Romanic Switzer-
land and puts it in more direct and intimate relation with German Tyrol.
The Rhaeto-Romans Increasing Germanization
The condition of things as here set forth explains why the Rhaeto-
Romanic people of the canton of the Grisons do not consider themselves
Italians, as do the Ladins almost everywhere else in the Alps. The Rhaeto-
Romanic people have tried to raise their dialects to the dignity of literary
tongues, though with little result. This effort has hardly passed beyond the
most elementary stage, for their culture is German and is growing increas-
ingly so not only through the influence of the schools but also through
commercial relations and the flourishing foreign tourist trade.
The Rhaeto-Romanic people of the Grisons could not look toward France,
from which they are separated by too wide a German zone, nor towards
Italy, from which they are cut off not only by the main divide of the Alps
but also by differences of religion (they are largely Protestant) and feeling.
In their inability to create for themselves a real language and a culture
of their own and in their reluctance to adopt that of one of the great Latin
nations, many students of the question see their weakness and fear their
early disappearance.
Indeed the colonization by Germans of some of the valleys of the upper
Rhine in the Middle Ages already at this time interrupted the continuity
of the Rhaeto-Romanic territory. Furthermore, in many centers of mixed
population, especially those on the floor of the main valleys, the German
element has been increasing of late as a result of the growth of commerce
and the influx of German travelers. The very favorable climate, both in
summer and winter, of the Engadine, for instance, has made it and its
center, St. Moritz, one of the most famous health and winter-sport resorts in
the world. St. Moritz is frequented especially by Germans. In the commune of issime the subdivision of Issime St. Jacob is German in speech while that of Issime St. Michael is French. In the schools Italian and French are taught, as in the other communes of the District of Aosta. The growth of the tourist trade has not caused any falling off in the old tendency of the
natives of the Engadine to emigrate, usually for part of the year, to various
parts of Europe.
The Number op Rhaeto-Romans
The number of Rhaeto-Romans in Switzerland has remained stationary
for some decades at about 40,000, which represents a constantly diminish-
ing proportion to the total population of Switzerland as well as to that
of the Grisons, outside of which canton there are only a few thousand in
other parts of Switzerland and some in Italy and the United States. (The
census of 1910 showed 408 Rhaeto-Romans in the United States.)
The Italian Parts of the Canton of the Grisons
The canton of the Grisons also includes, south of the main Alpine water-
shed, territories with Italian populations (in all less than 10,000 people).
These are the Val Mesocco and the Val Calanca, whose waters flow first
into the Ticino and then into Lake Maggiore, and the Yal Bregaglia and
Val di Poschiavo, whose waters reach Lake Como through the Mera and jthe
Adda, These form a part of so-called Italian Switzerland, which includes,
in addition to these three little pieces of the canton of the Grisons and a
small piece of the canton of Valais (the upper valley of the Diveria near
the Simplon Pass), the whole of the canton of Ticino.
The Canton of Ticino
Italian Switzerland is lacking in geographic unity as well as in political
unity. The territory itself of the canton of Ticino (2,801 sq. km.) is an
aggregation of very different parts, with limits which cannot but appear
very strange, especially where they include half of Lake Lugano, leaving
on one of its shores, as an exclave in Swiss territory, a small area belonging
to Italy (Campione). The canton of Ticino, like all of Italian Switzerland,
is, in fact, conquered territory.
When the strategic importance of the relevant passes is considered —
Simplon, St. Gotthard, Lucomagno, San Bernardino (connecting the Val
Mesocco with the Rheinwaldtal), Maloggia, Muretto, and Bernina^ — it is easy
to understand why Switzerland strove to possess them. The consequent
extension of Swiss territory encompassed areas purely Italian not only in
population but also in type of cultivation. On the Swiss shores of Lake
Lugano and Lake Maggiore the vine and mulberry and in some places even
the olive flourish. The districts constituting the present canton of Ticino
were severally joined to Switzerland at various times and were variously
governed, but always as conquered territory, until 1803, when the Ticino
became an independent state of the Confederation.
The population (160,680 in 1913) is altogether Italian both in dialect
and culture and, moreover, is attached to Italy by strong economic inter-
ests; but it is much more closely attached to the Swiss Confederation
because of the great political liberty granted by its constitution ; so there
is no marked tendency to reunite this region with the rest of Italy. More-
over it should be remarked that, while the canton of Ticino has furnished
a considerable emigration, especially to the United States (the census of
1910 enumerated 14,923 Italian Swiss), it has experienced an intensive
agricultural colonization by Lombard peasants, so that half of the present
population of the canton is estimated to consist of families born in Italy
who have established themselves there in the last fifty years. Then, too,
the region, like almost all of Switzerland, is subject to an intense temporary
immigration of Italian workmen and day laborers, who spend the working
season there and return to their homes for the winter. Indeed, this periodic
migration affects all the countries which border on Italy.
THE FRANCO-ITALIAN CONTACT ZONE
In the western Alps there is no clean-cut boundary between the dialects
which may be called Italian and those which should be regarded as French ;
in most cases only a trained philologist could decide whether certain valleys
or districts ought to be placed on one side or the other of this boundary.
It appears upon examination that, along the Eiviera, the dialect spoken at
Mentone is Provengal, while at Ventimiglia it is still Ligurian ; so that the
political boundary of Italy at this point does not diverge much from the
dialectal boundary.
In the Alps of Liguria and Piedmont, however, the Provengal and
Franco-Provencal dialects occupy all the upper valleys of the tributaries
of the Po, in some places even approaching the plain, where Gallo-Italian
dialects are spoken, which represent a transition between the Italian and
French dialects.
The Italian literary language and culture, equally with the French,
found a soil favorable for development among these different populations.
The preference for one language or the other in a given region was usually
dependent on its political affiliation or other historical vicissitudes. Hence,
the boundary between the Italian and French literary languages does not
coincide with that between the Italian and French dialects.
Number of French-Speaking People in Italy
From the last Italian census (1910) we can learn, not how many people
speak the Provengal and Franco-Proven§al dialects within the Italian
boundaries, but only how many of them use French as the language of the
church, of the school (where it is usually spoken along with Italian), and
of culture in general. The census shows that 70,560 inhabitants of the
administrative district of Aosta spoke French. In the valley of Aosta,
Italy has actually kept French in the elementary schools, and in the
churches French is used. In the Susa district there are 7,070 French in
the villages of the upper Dora Eiparia valley; this area is one of the
territories east of the Alpine watershed which was longest under the rule
of France (until the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713), and with France, too, it
was further related by cultural and commercial contact through the Mont-
Genevre Pass. Next to the south lie the valleys of the Chisone and the
Pellice, which are inhabited by the Waldensians, the well-known Protestant
sect, which, after many persecutions in the Dauphiny and in Savoy, found
a final refuge here. According to the census of 1910 there were 8,330
French-speaking people in the administrative district of Pinerolo, which
includes these valleys. The dialect of the Waldensians is Provencal, differ-
ing, however, from that of the adjoining regions because the Waldensians
came from the Dauphiny and settled in the territory which they now occupy
only in the Middle Ages. The official language, as well as that of their
church and culture, is French.
The Waldensians
It is important to remark that the official language of the Waldensians
was Italian until they had to call in the services of pastors from Geneva,
because almost all their own native pastors had fallen victims to the
pestilence of 1630. The French literary language was thus introduced. It
has since flourished because it conformed more closely to the character of
the local idioms, but especially because it became, as it were, the symbol
of their spirit of rebellion against the Church of Rome. While the French-
speaking persons in the district of Pinerolo number 8,330 according to
the Italian statistics, the Protestants of the same district, i. e. the Walden-
sians, number 14,841; the difference indicates that the Waldensians are
largely bilingual. The total number of Waldensians is, however, much
greater than these figures indicate, for they do not include the numerous
colonies of that sect in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, and in the western
hemisphere (especially in Uruguay).
Italian Populations in France: Nice
While some populations with Provengal and Franco-Provengal dialects and
often even with French language and culture are thus included within the
political boundaries of Italy, there are some populations with Italian dialects
and Italian culture within the territory of France. To be sure, the only popu-
lations in France with Italian dialects are the inhabitants of that section of
the middle valley of the Roia which, being included in the old County of Nice,
was detached from Italy in 1860, when this county was ceded to France.
Nice, with a good part of the Nice region, including also the principality
of Monaco, was at that time prevailingly Italian in language and culture.
But gradually, as the ''Cote d'Azur,'' or French Eiviera, has become one
of the most frequented winter resorts of the world, the old traditional
culture has grown weaker and in some places has even disappeared, so that
the whole region, including Nice, the birthplace of Garibaldi, has become
almost entirely French. The old character was but little fostered by the
modern stream of Italian immigration to this region (the Italians number
30,000 in Nice alone). Beside the Cote d'Azur other centers of the south
coast have been affected by this immigration, especially Marseilles, where
there are about 100,000 Italians who were born in Italy. But their influence
was much less than the number would indicate, because for the most part
their sojourn is temporary and they belong mostly to the laboring and
servant class.
Italian Emigration to Southern France
This Italian migration into southern France, in its causes and its
character, is of exactly the same type as that to Switzerland, Trieste and
Fiume, and Austria-Hungary in general. The consequences of this migra-
tion, while identical in their influence on the economic and social conditions
of the countries bordering on northern Italy, are very different in their
effect on the spread of Italian culture. The Italians who change from
temporary sojourners into permanent inhabitants of the countries which
receive them are quickly assimilated in France, while in Italian Switzer-
land, in the Trentino, and in Julian Venetia they go to swell the Italian
element and the strength of its resistance against the foreign elements.
The ethnographic and political consequences of this modern migration
of Italians, which has taken place on so large a scale to the New World,
within Europe itself, and to the Mediterranean countries, are not all evi-
dent, nor is this the place to consider them.